Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Heritage Collectors Are Insane!

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post on an Ebay listing for a 2012 Heritage Darwin Barney No Position card. It was the first time the card had been listed in nearly two years. It had a BIN/BO of $250 and the seller accepted an offer of $175.

I thought that the buyer was nuts, since the previous 36 sold for an average price of $86.

Now it looks like the buyer got a bargain.

Heritage collectors are insane...because...

Last week another Barney No Position was listed. The seller wrote a thread about it on Blowout. He listed it for a BIN/BO price of $299. I decided to watch the auction, figuring that it would be sitting there for years at that price.

It sat there for a couple hours.

Heritage collectors are insane because the card sold for $200.

I guess there were some collectors that decided to pounce after a two year drought, some collectors with deep pockets.

I couldn't spend $200 on an Ernie Banks rookie card. I love him, but I can't ever imagine a situation where I'd spend $200 on a card of Darwin Barney.

If you're curious, I've been tracking the card since the set was released four years ago. Here are all the sold copies from Ebay. I'm missing the price on a few that went BO...this was before I knew about Watchcount.

3/17/2012

$122.50

3/18/2012

$117.89

3/20/2012

$99.99

3/28/2012

$72.99

3/31/2012

$99.99

4/2/2012

$67.76

4/3/2012

$90.00

4/7/2012

$76.76

4/10/2012

$74.57

4/25/2012

$60.00

4/26/2012

$99.99

4/26/2012

$79.99

4/29/2012

$73.00

5/6/2012

$99.99

5/6/2012

$98.77

5/19/2012

$110.00

6/28/2012

$200.00

7/2/2012

$115.39

7/8/2012

$117.65

7/10/2012

$103.27

7/21/2012

$76.00

7/29/2012

$76.56

7/30/2012

$75.55

8/29/2012

$86.01

9/19/2012

$100.00

10/2/2012

$63.01

11/17/2012

$49.26

2/16/2013

$39.99

2/16/2013

$59.00

4/10/2013

BO

4/30/2013

$47.00

7/10/2013

$32.99

8/18/2013

$33.33

9/10/2013

BO

9/28/2013

BO

12/14/2013

$27.95

1/20/2014

$24.00

2/27/2016

$175.00

4/3/2016

$200.00

I am also proud to say that the cheapest price on the list, $24 on January 20, 2014, belongs to me. It was a second copy I bought for my Heritage team set. I couldn't resist the low price. I'm thinking about listing it now. Seems like I should cash in on the insanity.

I just wish you'd say that "some" Heritage collectors are insane. I love Heritage. It's my #1 set to pursue and attempt to build every year. But I don't participate in any of the real insanity (pursuing SPs is as insane as I care to get). I don't care about the "rare" inserts or variations at all. I only care about the "action" variations if they're from my team and, even then, I won't pay more than a couple of bucks for one. There's a great photo variation of one of my team's players in this year's flagship and I would love to have it. But it sells for $40 on eBay and it isn't worth that much to me. So, in a few years, it'll either be $1.50 and I'll buy one, or it will be $200 and I won't. And I will absolutely join you and say that anyone paying a premium for a gum stained card is insane (I have some vintage gummed stained cards I'd love to sell for those prices). But that is not all Heritage collectors. Frankly, I think the fact that you paid $24 for Darwin Barney is pretty whacked out, too. I'd pass at that price on any modern card.

About Me

I am a life-long Cubs fan currently in exile in southern Michigan. I have been collecting baseball cards since the fateful Cubs year of 1969. I took a 15 year break from the hobby and returned in 2008.